


A Habit to Avoid

by acernor



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Anal Sex, Bondage, Canon Compliant, First Time, Hand Jobs, M/M, his growing desire to tie than to the bed and fuck him until he cries, zagreus's canonical earnestness discussing relationship issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:08:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29755221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acernor/pseuds/acernor
Summary: “Ah,” Zagreus pants open-mouthed into Thanatos’s neck, the usually cool skin hot under his lips. His hand stutters on Thanatos’s cock as his own twitches between Thanatos’s fingers, wet and leaking.“Zagreus-” Thanatos breathes out, thighs clenching, cock pushing up into Zagreus’s fist. “Zag, I’m-”“Yeah?” Zagreus murmurs into his neck, kissing the line of his throat to take his mind off his impending orgasm. “Yeah? Is it good?” he asks, voice breathy with a choked-back moan. “Are you close?”“I-” Thanatos says on a gasp, and-A flash of green light. Zagreus’s hand closes on nothing. His dick, suddenly exposed to the emptiness of the room, twitches in the cool air.He’s left sitting alone on the bed- as he has been the last five times they’ve tried this.---Thanatos and Zagreus attempt to have sex.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 320
Collections: Done Reading(the Good Stuff)





	A Habit to Avoid

**Author's Note:**

> the first few lines are taken from in-game dialogue for their first hookup! this fic was written in honor of everyone who goes THAN NO WAIT every time he disappears after you talk to him lmao

“What are you waiting for? I’m here, already,” Thanatos says, bright eyes glinting from the depths of his cowl. “...Right?”

“Than,” Zagreus says, feeling the tension in his chest relax into a laugh. “Oh, you’re right.”

There’s no more waiting. He takes him to bed.

\---

...Well, there is more waiting. 

After he and Thanatos spend a perfectly pleasant and fulfilling evening (or morning?) rolling around on the large bed he commissioned, exchanging kisses and going no farther, Thanatos is hard to track down. It’s not until many escape attempts later that Zagreus encounters him, out in the depths of Elysium. 

The shades of the underworld claw and clutch at the hems of Zagreus’s clothes as he hacks his way through, their partially corporeal forms completely unaware of Thanatos’s eerie, smooth approach. Zagreus thrusts Stygius through the chest of a clawed specter, forcing the soul out of its ghastly corpse as it dissolves into dust. With the tolling of a distant bell, a dim purple light effuses from the ground in a huge radius around them, highlighting the rounded soul of Zagreus’s now-helpless target. 

A grinding, roaring sound from nearby- a massive, deadly chariot tearing the earth beneath its wheels, racing towards Zagreus in a fountain of grit and dirt. Zagreus raises his blade to finish the ghost before him- already starting to reform the shell of its body- even as vicious bursts of magic race towards him from the dozens of shades closing in around him. He spins to deflect them with Stygius, gleaming with the bronze light of Athena’s protection, and swings around in a mighty circle to finish the shade before him-

_ Dong. _

In a flash of purple light, the shades surrounding him dissolve, constructed bodies shattering into so much dust and blowing away on the slow winds of Elysium. Nothing is left for him, besides a single tiny chariot outside of the circle of destruction. 

With a single disgruntled swing of Stygius, Zagreus dashes forward and finishes the last remaining foe.

“Better luck next time,” Thanatos says, a small smile quirking at his lips. 

“Than,” Zagreus says, aiming for complaining but likely only managing star-struck. Death is inescapable, indeed. 

He lowers Stygius to approach Thanatos. Finally, here he is; Zagreus has been hoping to see him. To speak with him; perhaps, even, to hold him-

“I’ll see you back at the house,” Thanatos says as soon as Zagreus steps within range; and with a flash of green light, he disappears before Zagreus can finish his ‘wait!’

\---

Back at the house, Thanatos waits. 

“Than,” Zagreus says, approaching the small balcony overlooking the river Styx. The bloody light reflects off the gleam of Thanatos’s pale hair; the scythe on his back glistens in red.

“Zagreus,” Thanatos says, turning with a half-smile that he then wipes from his face, as if catching himself. “Ahem. It’s good to see you.”

Zagreus feels Thanatos’s discarded smile make its way onto his own lips, helpless to prevent the way it makes his heart go soft. The air here in the house of Hades is deathly still, but Thanatos’s long black robe still stirs gently in an unseen breeze. His cowl sits, loose, over his head, obscuring part of his face in shadow; Zagreus wants to brush it back. He wants to let the light of the river Styx highlight the planes of Thanatos’s face, let it warm the brown of his skin.

The broad hallway stretches into darkness at their backs, lit at regular intervals by the dim clusters of candles high above; at the other end of the hallways stands Achilles, faithfully guarding his post as always. Faintly, a hum echoes through the rafters- Dusa, far overhead.

They are not alone. But when are they ever, in the house of Hades?

“It’s good to see you too,” Zagreus says, and extends his hand in offering.

Thanatos glances down at the hand like he doesn’t know what to make of it; then looks up, mouth twisting in a frown, at Zagreus. Zagreus nods encouragingly at Thanatos’s hand.

Slowly, Thanatos extends his arm and takes Zagreus’s hand in his own. Zagreus slots their fingers together. 

“I’ve missed you,” he says.

Thanatos glances away with a severe expression; but his fingers tighten in Zagreus’s. “Hm,” he says, not pulling away.

Zagreus steps in closer; leans in, until their faces are inches apart. Thanatos’s eyes flicker back to his face, then drop to his lips.

“You said it would be alright if I saw you again,” Zagreus says, voice soft.

“Mm,” Thanatos agrees, still looking at his mouth. His lips part briefly- and then he leans in and presses them to Zagreus’s, once, soft and yielding like his words never are. 

Before Zagreus can return the kiss Thanatos has withdrawn, leaning back with an air of distracted occupation.

“I have to go,” he says quickly; and in a flash of green light, he’s gone.

\---

The pattern continues.

Zagreus often finds Thanatos in Elysium; often meets him back at the house. Thanatos is receptive to his advances- even initiates on his own sometimes- and yet each encounter ends in the same way. In a short, direct flurry of words, Thanatos excuses himself and disappears, not waiting for Zagreus’s reply, in a flash of green light.

The most jarring is when he excuses himself in the middle of… well.

“Ah,” Zagreus pants open-mouthed into Thanatos’s neck, the usually cool skin hot under his lips. His hand stutters on Thanatos’s cock, as his own twitches between Thanatos’s fingers, wet and leaking. 

“Zagreus-” Thanatos breathes out, thighs clenching, cock pushing up into Zagreus’s fist. “Zag, I’m-”

“Yeah?” Zagreus murmurs into his neck, kissing the line of his throat to take his mind off his impending orgasm. “Yeah? Is it good?” he asks, voice breathy with a choked-back moan. “Are you close?”

“I-” Thanatos says on a gasp, and-

A flash of green light. Zagreus’s hand closes on nothing. His dick, suddenly exposed to the emptiness of the room, twitches in the cool air.

He’s left sitting alone on the bed- as he has been the last five times they’ve tried this. 

With a noise of exasperation, he grabs his cock and fists himself vigorously. It only takes a few seconds before he spills all over his fingers, Than’s name on his lips.

Panting, he sits up straight, collecting himself. 

This has to stop.

\---

“Than,” Zagreus says as they stand next to the bed, both of Thanatos’s hands clasped in his. “Can I talk to you about something?”

Thanatos’s posture goes slightly rigid; his voice has a note of formality as he responds. “You may, Zagreus. What is it?”

Zagreus squeezes Thanatos’s hands, looking down at them with a small frown. How to phrase it.

“Do I ever make you… uncomfortable?” he asks.

“What do you mean?” Thanatos says, voice sharp. His fingers tighten on Zagreus’s fingers to match his grip.

“That is,” Zagreus says, choosing his words carefully. “Sometimes when we… sometimes you leave, suddenly. I wanted to know if it was because I did something that you- didn’t like.”

“Not at all,” Thanatos says immediately, shaking his head. Zagreus looks up to meet his gaze and finds his eyes firm, though his face looks slightly…

Zagreus reaches up to cup one cheek in his hand, and finds Thanatos’s skin hot to the touch.

“I like… what we do,” Thanatos says, meeting Zagreus’s eyes and pausing only slightly on his words, as if refusing to stumble. “What we… have done. Together.”

“I like it as well, Than,” Zagreus says, smile creeping up onto his lips. “I get… confused, though,” he adds, “when you leave so suddenly. I thought that… that maybe my attentions had become too much. That I was crossing a line that I shouldn’t.”

“That’s not-” Thanatos says, glancing away. His rigidly formal posture shifts in an uncharacteristic tell- as if he has stopped himself from fidgeting. “...Not at all,” he says, more quietly. “I like… I want to, with you. I want to be there.”

“Can I ask why you leave, then?” Zagreus asks, voice gentle. Thanatos’s strong fingers tighten in his; Zagreus rubs his thumb slowly over the defined knuckles, the backs of his hands.

“I just…” Thanatos begins, then closes his mouth. After a moment he breathes out an impatient breath, as if frustrated with his own hesitance. “This is embarrassing. It’s a habit.”

“A habit?” Zagreus repeats, surprised. Thanatos nods.

“I am… accustomed, to coming and going as needed. There is not usually much need for ceremony.” His mouth twists wryly. “It seems that the practice has gotten the best of me, now-” he shakes his head and continues- “I was not… intending to leave, precisely. Those times.”

Zagreus hears a laugh escape his own lips unexpectedly; quiet amusement settles into his chest.

“Truly?” he asks, stepping forward a little further; into Thanatos’s space. “I had been worried that… well.” He can feel his smile broadening. “Can I ask why you didn’t return, then, if it was an inadvertent departure?”

Thanatos glares at him, eyes flashing. He lets Zagreus slide his hand from his hot face down his neck; Zagreus rubs it comfortingly, then releases the column of his neck to slip the arm around Thanatos’s waist. “Surely you can understand that there are some limits to what I’m willing to do, Zagreus,” Thanatos says, voice tight. “I have my pride.”

Zagreus feels his heart go warm and soft. “Than,” he says, affection creeping into his voice. He can’t help but to ask- “Were you embarrassed?” 

“I didn’t say-” Thanatos starts, and his eyes narrow, flashing. “Fine. You know what? Yes. Yes, I was embarrassed. So I didn’t come back. Is that what you wanted to know?”

“Well,” Zagreus says, feeling unbearably fond. “Yes, I suppose.”

“Did it… bother you?” Thanatos asks, still glaring, as if Zagreus’s answer is a tricky problem that he wants to solve. Zagreus leans in and presses a kiss against one of his sharp cheekbones.

“A little,” Zagreus says, honestly. “I missed you when you went. I worried that I’d done something wrong. I want to treat you well, make you comfortable. I don’t want to drive you away.”

“I… you treat me well,” Thanatos says, directing his glare over Zagreus’s shoulder. “You won’t drive me away.” He pauses for a moment, then continues. “I will… I won’t do it again, if it upsets you.”

“It’s less upsetting to think of now,” Zagreus says, pressing another kiss against Thanatos’s cheek. Still warm; hot, under his lips, in contrast to the cool of his room. “Now that I know that  _ you’re _ not upset,” he adds, affection coloring his voice.

“Hmph,” Thanatos says, and tilts his head until he’s meeting Zagreus’s lips with his own. Zagreus hums softly in contentment, and opens his mouth to him when Thanatos deepens the kiss. His winds his arm tighter around Thanatos’s waist, drawing him in against himself.

“I’ll stay, this time,” Thanatos says, when they break the kiss.

“If it’s- too much,” Zagreus says, voice soft. “You can leave. I understand if- it can be overwhelming.”

“You know Zag-” Thanatos says, directing his bright glare to meet Zagreus’s eyes again- “maybe I want to be overwhelmed.”

Zagreus’s whole body flares with heat.

\---

“Good?” Zagreus pants, hips slowly pressing forward. Thanatos’s abs jump under his hand, his biceps flexing where they stretch over his head, tied to the headboard with a length of dark cloth.

“You don’t need to ask every time,” Thanatos breathes out, brows furrowed as he accepts Zagreus into himself, tight and hot around him. “I said-” he bites his lip, as Zagreus sinks a little deeper in- “I told you that it was good, before.” He exhales on a shuddering gasp.

“You’ve never let me make you come,” Zagreus says, watching Thanatos’s pretty face intently for each flutter of eyelashes, each change of expression, as he presses slowly inside. “I don’t want to go to far-”

“I  _ told _ you,” Thanatos says impatiently, strong thighs squeezing at Zagreus’s waist. “I will make you quite aware if you go too far. You can stop being so hesitant-  _ ah.” _

“That was a good ‘ah,’ I take it?” Zagreus asks, slowly rocking forward in the same motion. Thanatos’s lips part, the pink inside of his mouth soft and inviting; Zagreus leans down to press an open-mouthed kiss to him. Thanatos makes another small noise into his mouth, body tightening around Zagreus’s cock, so slick and good that Zagreus echoes his breathless noise with a moan.

He slides one palm along Thanatos’s hard, muscled thigh, guiding it up to rest higher on his waist, and starts to slowly thrust. Thanatos’s body clenches beneath him, muscles flexing into definition and then going lax in ripples, waist arching with each press of Zagreus’s cock inside him.

“You feel good,” Zagreus breathes, dipping his head to kiss at the taut line of Thanatos’s neck. “You feel- Than, you feel really good.” He drags his lips along the sensitive skin at the base of his throat to savor the way that Thanatos’s breath catches; then follows with his tongue and teeth. Thanatos’s hands clench where they lie bound in the cloth above his head; his thighs part a little wider, as he breathes out unsteadily.

“If I feel so good,” Thanatos says, “then why don’t you stop talking and- ah, and- make use of it?”

“Make use of it?” Zagreus asks, cock pulsing with arousal even as his lips draw up in a smile. “Are you asking me to overwhelm you?”

“You think you can?” Thanatos asks, with a small smile on his face- a friendly, secretive one, as if sharing a joke between just the two of them. 

Zagreus’s heart feels so soft. Licking his lips, he shifts his weight and finally slides all the way in, shuddering at the heat of having his cock fully enveloped. Thanatos’s neck arches on a full-throated moan.

Zagreus sets himself to attempting to overwhelm.

\---

“Zagreus- Zagreus-” Thanatos pants, chest heaving, body squirming under him. “I’m- ah, I’m-”

“Like that?” Zagreus murmurs, eyes half-lidded, pulse racing, as he drives his cock in deliberately slowly, dragging against the place that makes Thanatos’s voice waver. The thick muscles of Thanatos’s thighs tremble on his hips, even as he squeezes, hot and soft, around Zagreus’s leaking cock. “You’re sure it’s not too much?”

“I said that I will-  _ tell _ you- if it is too much,” Thanatos gasps, brow furrowed in a mixture of pleasure and impatience. His hands tighten and loosen in their ties by the bedframe, as if trying to restrain themselves. “If you don’t-”

“Fine,” Zagreus says, and he abandons his measured pace to start fucking in hard and fast, chasing his own pleasure. A slapping sound echoes between them as Thanatos’s lips part on a silent cry. Zagreus’s hand closes around him, forcing a gasp from his throat and a trail of precome from the head of his cock as Zagreus starts to slowly palm it.

“Gonna come for me?” Zagreus murmurs into his neck, carefully pressing his teeth into the thin skin of his throat. He sucks, long enough and firm enough to leave a faint mark; Thanatos’s body ripples around him, cock jumping in Zagreus’s hand.

“Ah- ah-” Thanatos pants, more precome leaking out of him as his eyes screw closed, eyebrows going high and tight. “Zag- Zag-”

“Not going to leave?” Zagreus asks, mouth quirking in fondness, sliding his free hand up Thanatos’s bound arms to squeeze at his tricep. “You still can, you know. We both know these binds can’t stop you.”

“I said I would stay, didn’t I?” Thanatos gets out, voice breaking on a moan.

“And you’re a man of your word,” Zagreus grunts, shoving forward roughly, now, each thrust jolting Thanatos up the bed. “Are you going to let me do anything I want, now?” he asks, with a breathy laugh. 

Thanatos opens his mouth to respond, but any words are cut off by the loud moan that reverberates from his throat as Zagreus starts to jerk his hand up and down his cock at a finishing pace.

“Ah-  _ ah-” _ he gasps, back arching and cock twitching in Zagreus’s hand. His body starts to flex and squeeze around Zagreus as wetness spills into Zagreus’s waiting fingers; his usually measured voice rises in uncontrolled little cries, echoing in the vast room. Running his thumb along the sensitive spot below the head of his cock, Zagreus leans forward to press a kiss to Thanatos’s bottom lip that frames his perfect, open mouth in a pink circle; to his cheek, his jaw, the corner of his eye that glistens with wet next to his dark eyelashes.

“That’s it baby,” Zagreus gasps out, grinding forward into him hard and deep. “Do you need me to stop? Should I keep going?”

Thanatos doesn’t respond with words, but his shaking thighs clench tighter around Zagreus’s hips, holding him inside; with a groan, Zagreus abandons his restraint and fucks him as hard and fast as he wants to, forcing small choked-out noises from Thanatos’s throat and more tears from the corners of his eyes.

“So good,” Zagreus pants, bracing both his hands on Thanatos’s hips to hold him in place as he shudders and squirms, oversensitive and shivering. “Being so good for me- staying so nice and easy for my cock, ah, Than, you really know how to treat me-”

“Zagreus!” Thanatos gasps, tossing his head to the side and biting the skin of his own bicep as if it will muffle his cries. The movement throws the lines of his throat into stark definition, and Zagreus, dick twitching, sinks his teeth into that unguarded neck.

A full-body shudder builds at the base of his skull and extends through the tips of his extremities, vibrating and hot and tingling like a limb that’s fallen asleep, pulsing with pleasure. The intensity of it makes Zagreus’s eyes roll back in his head; his wet cock throbs inside Thanatos’s body and everything goes pleasantly warm and liquid. He can feel the way that his cock releases, come flooding into Thanatos’s body beneath him, filling him up wet and filthy and good, intimate and hot. Close.

It feels good, being this close.

_ “Than,” _ Zagreus sighs, satisfaction rolling through him like a wave as his hips grind forward indulgently into that tight heat- once, twice, three times more. “Ah- Than, Than.”

“Zag,” Thanatos murmurs in reply; there’s a ripping sound, and a cool hand comes to rest on the back of Zagreus’s head, newly freed, the shreds of fabric clinging to its wrist brushing against Zagreus’s bare shoulder.

_ “Oh,” _ Zagreus breathes, heart beating hot and full in his chest. He feels so good, held tight against the warmth of Thanatos’s body like this; with the gentle stroke of Than’s hand in his hair. A warm, flowing contentment spreads throughout his body, from his scalp to the soles of his feet to where his cock still rests inside Thanatos’s silky body.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Thanatos speaks. “How was that?” his steady voice asks, sounding curious.

“Than,” Zagreus breathes, propping himself up to press a kiss against his mouth. Thanatos’s lips part for him, soft and easy, accepting his lips and tongue, the drag of his teeth. “That was- amazing,” Zagreus says, voice soft and affectionate. “I really- really liked that.”

“Hm,” Thanatos says against Zagreus’s lips; Zagerus can feel the way that his mouth curves in a smile below his own. “I did as well.”

“I’m glad you stayed,” Zagreus says, kissing him again- then once more. “I liked it so much.”

“I as well,” Thanatos agrees easily; and this time, as the first time, he waits until the nonexistent morning to leave.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi! [twitter](https://twitter.com/acernor_acernor), [tumblr](https://acernor.tumblr.com/)


End file.
